The Baltic Young Artist Award 2017 has been won by Katrīna Čemme, while the Public Vote 2017 has gone to Laura Motiejunaite

On 15 November at the Art Museum Riga Bourse, the Latvian artist Katrīna Čemme was named Best Emerging Artist in the Baltics in 2017. The winner was chosen by an international jury, which reviewed works by 76 artists.

The Baltic Young Artist Award public vote was wonconvincingly by Lithuanian artist Laura Motiejunaite, while the Latvian social media platform LSM.LV vote was won by Lauma Kokoreviča. In total, over 3,000 art lovers participated in the online vote, which is about 20% up on the previous year.

Katrīna Čemme (1989) completed her Master’s degree at the Visual Communications Department at the Art of Latvia. She makes prints and sculptural objects and began exhibiting work in 2012. This year, her works have been exhibited in What is Lost is Lost Forever, kim? Contemporary Art Centre (2017), Oda-X, Gallery LOW (2017), NNN, Latvian National Museum of Art (2017), as well as in Popper Magazine.

Laura Motiejunaite (b. 1992) has graduated with Master's degree in textile from Vilnius Academy of Arts. She also holds a Bachelor's degree in textile. Motiejunaite has had three personal exhibitions in Lithuania. She has also taken part in many group exhibitions in Lithuania, England, Sweden, Ukraine and Poland.

The award was launched by the contemporary art platform NOAR.eu and the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation, which was founded by the ABLV Charitable Foundation and the Boris and Ināra Teterev Foundation, and is organised in collaboration with the art academies of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation will award a prize of EUR 2,000 to the winner. Meanwhile, the winner of the online public vote will receive a prize of EUR 500. In turn, the winner of the LSM.LV platform award will get the chance to advertise one of his future exhibitions free of charge for one calendar month on the LSM portal.

The international jury was comprised of Curator of Finland’s KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art (now Curator of the Espoo Museum of Modern Art), Milja Liimatainen, Finland; curator and art critic, Aušra Trakšelytė, Lithuania; curator Keiju Krikmann, Estonia; gallerist and NOAR Board Member Andra Orna, Estonia; Curator of the Boris and Ināra Teterev Foundation’s Art in Public Space programme Helēna Demakova; Head of the ABLV Charitable Foundation’s Arts Programmes Kaspars Vanags; and artist and Art Academy of Latvia Prorector and Head of the Painting Department, Andris Vītoliņš.

Ceremony partners: Art Museum Riga Bourse and the Latvian National Museum of Art. Support for the ceremony is also being provided by its official carrier Lux Express, Park Inn by Radisson and Interbaltija AG. Information support: social media news website: LSM.LV and KDI.